15 Awesome Hacks for Store-Bought Foods

Are you someone who loves the idea of freshly baked cakes, homemade broth, and a house smelling of pie, but you have little time for these annoyingly Martha-Stewarty pursuits?

Lucky for you, the Internet is full of ideas on how to pimp your store-bought foods so they taste homemade. We’ve put together a list of 15 of the most useful store-bought food hacks, so you can make a super moist chocolate cake from cake mix and pudding, turn Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls into waffles, or cook the best damn baked beans ever (by adding little more than jalapeños and bacon to what’s in the can.)

Make a cake out of ice cream sandwiches

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 3
How it works: It's your friend's birthday and in a moment of blind affection you promised to make them a homemade cake. There's one problem: you don't know how and your oven at home doesn't even work. Don't panic, just grab a box of ice cream sandwiches and a bottle each of whipped cream, hot fudge topping, and caramel sauce (and don't forget the pecans). Et voilà, you have an ice cream sandwich cake.
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Make Thai chicken noodle soup out of a can of Campbells

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 2
How it works: Just think of canned chicken noodle as a blank canvas which you can color any way you like. For a Thai twist, add in 1/4 cup coconut milk, squeeze half a lime on top, and garnish with fresh cilantro. Or, if you'd rather add some Mexican flare, add half a diced jalapeño, 1/4 cup sliced bell peppers, 2 tbsp shredded cheese, and a few crushed tortilla chips.
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Amp up the flavors in bottled pasta sauce

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 3
How it works: Brown chopped onions, garlic, mushrooms, and bell peppers in butter. Next, add bottled pasta sauce along with fennel, basil, Italian seasoning, and oregano (if you like your sauce tangy and spicy, go ahead and add a few drops of tabasco, too). Let it thicken, toss with pasta, and garnish with freshly grated parmesan cheese for a kick-ass midweek meal.
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Make Cinnamon Waffles with Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 3
How it works: Cinnamon rolls are amazing, but cinnamon roll waffles are f**king fantastic. Put Pillsbury Cinammon rolls on a preheated waffle maker and close all the way to smash them into waffles. Let your nose tell you when the waffles are done and drizzle with cream cheese syrup before devouring.
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Give a gourmet twist (or several) to microwave popcorn

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 1
How it works: Popcorn's having its moment across the country, and why shouldn't you be involved? Mist fresh-out-of-the-microwave popcorn with some herbed olive oil and toss with taco seasoning or garlic powder and rosemary. Top with dill and lemon zest. Now you have gourmet popcorn that's perfect for an at home movie night.
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Jazz up frozen perogis with onion and garlic

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 4
How it works: Frozen Perogis, like most things that come out of the freezer, can do with a dash of flavor. Enter chopped onions, mushrooms, and garlic browned in butter. Toss the veg with cooked perogies that have been boiled in salted water and browned on both sides. Add a dash of hot sauce if you like the burn.
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Pimp out plain store-bought hummus

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 1
How it works: Plain store-bought hummus is way cheaper than the flavored varieites, but it can sometimes taste like cardboard pulp. Don't fret, just mix in sea salt, cumin, chopped roasted garlic, fresh cilantro and chopped chillies to add some punch.
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Give grocery store mozarella a milk bath so it tastes homemade

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 1
How it works: The good folks at Serious Eats have the ultimate hack for making store-bought mozarella taste totally homemade. The secret? A warm, salted, hour-long milk bath for the mozz.
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Make canned refried beans taste like they're from a restaurant

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 2
How it works: The secret to restaurant style refried beans is sour cream, hot sauce, and a mound of melted monterey jack cheese on top.
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Liven up the flavor of store-bought broth

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 3
How it works: We all have culinary aspirations of making broth from scratch, but in the interest of time, take the store-bought stuff and simmer it with some add-ins like bay leaf, crushed garlic cloves, whole peppercorns, a splash of white wine, fresh thyme (and possibly miso paste). Let it simmer for at least fifteen minutes, and you'll have broth so good your friends will think that rat in Ratatouille made it.
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Dress-up Tater Tots à la nachos

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 3
How it works: You can't go wrong with plain fried tater tots. But if you're looking to make them even tastier, top them with salsa, cheese sauce, chorizo, drained tomatoes, red onions, scallions, and cilantro.
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Make store-bought pie crust taste better with cookie crumbs

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 4
How it works: Add all sorts of great flavor and texture to your finished crust by grinding cookies and granulated sugar into a fine dust—you can even get fancy and toss in a little cinnamon. Then generously sprinkle the cookie dust mixture on your work surface in place of flour as you roll out the store-bought pie crust with a rolling pin.
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Make canned tuna into a colorful, flavorful snack

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 3
How it works: Tuna is one of foods that we know is good for us, but such a bore to eat. It's not boring if you combine it with olive oil, peppers, onion, olives, parsley, basil, capers, sea salt, and black pepper (and some paprika to give it a kick).
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Degree of difficulty (0-10): 6
How it works: This is the hack you'll want to write out on a post-it and tape onto your fridge. Blend cake mix, pudding mix, 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, and 4 large eggs together and bake for 27-32 minutes for a dense, moist cake that no one will believe started out in a box.
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Propel baked beans into the big leagues with onions, peppers, jalapeños, and bacon

Degree of difficulty (0-10): 5
How it works: Mix baked beans into sauteed onion, green pepper, and jalapeños along with a mixture of barbecue sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, and mustard. Top with half-cooked bacon strips and bake this low and slow—325 degrees for 2 hours—for the most delicious baked beans you'll ever have.
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